


Spirits of this age

by sevenofspade



Category: Ancient History RPF
Genre: Alternate History, Double Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-05 03:13:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4163508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenofspade/pseuds/sevenofspade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five lives Mark Antony never lived.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spirits of this age

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aestivali](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aestivali/gifts).



> The title is from Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_ , Act 3, scene I.
> 
> Much thanks are owed to M for moral support.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this fic, aestivali.

**V.**

"I am glad to see you are well. I had heard you had found yourself indisposed before the battle," Cleopatra says and Agrippa _flinches_ , his whole body reacting to her words despite her not talking to him. 

Octavian, of course, does not even twitch.

The boy -- because he is still a boy, despite the airs of authority he gives himself -- has always been cold. The Egyptian sun and his recent defeat at Actium have done nothing to change this. If anything, he's now turned brittle, like glass.

"It is not that I am unwell," Octavian says, "but that the Republic is suffering. It is ill to the point of death and you have killed it, Antony, you and your Egyptian queen. Do you think Rome will welcome you now? Do you think you will ride in triumph through the streets?"

"No. You can have Rome. I have Egypt," Antony says and tangles his fingers with Cleopatra's, "and that is enough."

"If you do not have Rome, then all of this was for nothing." There is a crack in Octavian's smooth facade. It is small, but it is there.

"I've never wanted Rome," Antony says. "Not like you, not like Caesar."

**IV.**

"Octavian," Antony says, "what is this?" He holds up his commission as governor of Macedonia.

"A bribe," she replies. "So you'll leave Rome, take your wife with you and forget you couldn't save my brother from the mob."

He sits down in the chair in front of her. "You're my wife."

"This was your idea," she says, waving a hand at her senatorial toga -- the one she's been wearing for years now, while pretending to be her brother. "They still think I'm mourning Octavian. You can have me finally die of grief, if you want."

"And then you will be alone in Rome who knows your secret," he says. There have been quite a few proscriptions and exiles, lately. He does not blame her, as more than a few of those were his idea.

She has more to lose if discovered than him, Caesar's ghost hounding his steps if the name of the Julii fades into oblivion or not. While Octavia is Octavian, is _Caesar_ , Gaius still has an heir.

"I will be alone in Rome, but I will be First in Rome," she says and smiles her brother's smile, her uncle's smile.

And what an heir she already is.

**III.**

"Brutus can't be allowed to know he's Caesar's heir," Antony says.

"Obviously," Octavius replies. His anger shows in the way the word twists in his mouth. "Yet Caesar must have an heir."

"And I suppose you'll volunteer for the position," Antony says.

Octavius goes completely still, like that's the only way he's found of not startling. "I was about to suggest you."

Antony laughs.

"You _can_ be funny," he says when he's finished. Then he sees Octavius' face and sighs. "You weren't being funny."

"No." Octavius sounds offended by the very suggestion.

Antony sits on the table and pulls up his leg to scratch his foot. "Why would you want me for Caesar's heir? You don't like me."

"Indeed," Octavius says. He doesn't try to dress it up in pretty language, the way he might in front of the Senate, he just states it like the fact it is: Octavius doesn't like Antony.

Fair enough. Antony doesn't like Octavius either.

"All man of the Julii that I am," Octavius says -- and Antony snorts, because the boy is what, eighteen? Nineteen? Something like that -- "I am an unknown."

"And I'm known enough that you can be my heir instead of Caesar's."

**II.**

There's blood under Antony's fingernails. It's not his and it's not Caesar's, but it almost was.

"You almost died," Antony says.

"Thank you, Antony, for saving my life," Caesar says, stiff and formal like that's what Antony wants to hear.

The deep breath Antony is taking to calm himself catches in his throat. He spins and grabs the front of Caesar's toga. He has things to say, but when the cloth rips in his hand along the line of Casca's knife blow, he finds his words are all gone.

"I am thankful," Caesar says, touching the back of Antony's head lightly. His fingers press into Antony's skull and his mouth curves as if for a kiss.

Antony shrugs him off.

"You almost died." It seems Antony's brain is incapable of providing him with more words and so he must make do with those three.

"You saved me," Caesar says.

Antony opens his mouth again and Caesar lays the tips of his fingers on it, saving Antony from having to repeat himself once more.

"Tomorrow I will go and confront my would-be killers," Caesar says and neither he nor Antony mention that these men are his friends. "But that is tomorrow."

**I.**

"More wine," Alix says and that turns Antony's head. It'd be the first time Alix asked for wine, much less more of it. That's a big part of why Antony doesn't attend these parties, usually.

"Celebrating?" Antony asks.

"I'm a Senator." Alix sounds like it's more of surprise to him than it is to Antony.

"Caesar is still naming Gauls as Senators?" Octavius says. There is no jealousy creeping in his voice, but there's no need for there to be. Everyone knows Octavius wants his great-uncle's place and full control of Rome besides.

Antony just wants full control of the wine bottle.

He's not a man for politics. Even had he not cut his time in the Legion somewhat shorter than tradition in his family expected -- but he still served a full term and more -- after his father's recent death, he does not think he would be. If a friend of him were to die and that was the only way to avenge him -- or her, although there's very little chance Fulvia will let anyone kill her without getting revenge herself -- then yes.

Antony likes his friends, but he does not think any of them will get murdered for politics.


End file.
